.bin Files

[bkaron]

I need to open a .bin file but Stuffit Expander said it can't do it, is there a way to expand the files?

 

[Zammy-Sam]

Is it maybe an image file such as CUE/BIN?

 

[brianleahy]

The .bin extension has been used for LOTS of different file types on different platforms over the years. What sort of file is it? Where did you get it?

 

[bkaron]

PlayStation Emulator BIOS

 

[Zammy-Sam]

could it be it's not packed? The bios of my kt133 pc mainboard was also an uncompressed bin file.

 

[bkaron]

Not packed? What do you mean?

 

[Viro]

Bin in this case just means binary. There isn't any compression there and I know with BIOSes, the contents of the file just gets copied verbatim into wherever it's meant to go.

Perhaps you could try getting your emulator to load the file?

 

[bkaron]

Oh I see, it was so obvious! Here is a new one ya’ why cant I uncompress this file (I get the same error message) vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar

 

[Zammy-Sam]

Does the terminal command work:
tar -x vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar

 

[bkaron]

Nope, it just hangs

 

[Zammy-Sam]

Oops! My mistake.
It's supposed to be:
tar xvf vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar

 

[bkaron]

Am is doing this right? All I do is type "tar xvf " and just drag the file for the desktop, and this is what happens.


Last login: Wed Nov 10 08:43:08 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
[Brandon-Karons-Computer:~] bkaron% tar xvf /Users/bkaron/Desktop/vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Skipping to next header
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[Brandon-Karons-Computer:~] bkaron%

 

[Viro]

There are two possibilities. It's a) not a tar file or b) it's a compressed tar file.

If it's b, then you need to try 'tar xvzf' (for gzip compression) or 'tar xvjf' (bz2 compression). Hopefully, that should solve your problem.

 

[bkaron]

Here, I did both and nothing:

Last login: Wed Nov 10 08:52:38 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
[Brandon-Karons-Computer:~] bkaron% tar xvzf /Users/bkaron/Desktop/vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar

gzip: stdin: not in gzip format
tar: Child returned status 1
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[Brandon-Karons-Computer:~] bkaron% tar xvjf /Users/bkaron/Desktop/vcdtoolsX_app.dmg.tar
bzip2: (stdin) is not a bzip2 file.
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
[Brandon-Karons-Computer:~] bkaron%

 

[Zammy-Sam]

something is wrong with the tar file. Search for a compressed tar file in google and test it. I am quite sure everything is fine with your stuffit and your tar command.

 

[bkaron]

Oh ok, thanks!